They weren't just passengers; they were ghosts in the machine, bound by the code of a trailer but wearing the skin of humans. Elias realized then that in the world of version 1.42, the destination didn't matter. He wasn't delivering people to Paris; he was just keeping the simulation running.
He set off. Driving a bus felt different. He had to take the corners wider, mindful that his "cargo" had names and imaginary families. As he hit the autobahn, a heavy rain began to fall. The wipers slapped against the glass in a rhythmic trance.
Elias panicked, slamming on the brakes. He ran to the back of the cab and looked through the glass. The forty passengers were still there. They hadn't moved an inch. One woman in the third row was still holding an invisible book; a man in the back was frozen in the middle of a yawn.
"Warning," the dispatcher’s note read on his dashboard. "This mod is an adaptation of a trailer. If the passengers do not appear, advance the time."
He shifted back into first gear, eased off the clutch, and drove into the sunset, the silent, vibrating crowd behind him his only company on the long road to the next update. 42 version of Euro Truck Simulator 2?
